[1695–1705; sober + side1 + -s3]This word is first recorded in the period 1695–1705. Other words that entered English
at around the same time include: assemblage, caisson, thoroughbred, vector, veneer-s an ending marking nouns as plural (boys; wolves), occurring also on nouns that have no singular (dregs; entrails; pants; scissors), or on nouns that have a singular with a different meaning (clothes; glasses; manners; thanks). The pluralizing value of -s is weakened or lost in a number of nouns that now often take singular agreement,
as the names of games (billiards; checkers; tiddlywinks) and of diseases (measles; mumps; pox; rickets); the latter use has been extended to create informal names for a variety of involuntary
conditions, physical or mental (collywobbles; giggles; hots; willies). A parallel set of formations, where -s has no plural value, are adjectives denoting socially unacceptable or inconvenient
states (bananas; bonkers; crackers; nuts; preggers; starkers)